Warbird Information Exchange

I wish I'd found this forum sooner. My father-in-law is the late Don L. Boatright, who flew Destiny's Tot. Jason Schillereff posted an excellent photo of him under "9th AAF, 363rd Fighter Group, 382nd Fighter Squadron photos". Though he was quick to talk about flying, England, and the 363rd Fighter Group, he was reticent to speak of himself, so we don't know much about his career. We have the Kent Miller book "Seven Months over Europe: The 363rd Fighter Group in WWII", and he gets a mention for the day he was hit and knocked out of the war, but facts are tantalizingly bare. He seemed embarrassed to talk about himself, and it almost seemed he was ashamed of being hit and grounded. All we know is that a 20mm round passed through his cockpit just above the instrument panel somewhere over Germany, and he sustained glass and shrapnel wounds to his face and left eye. When a nice lady ventured one day to ask how he'd made it back to England with his cockpit breached, blind in one eye, and bleeding, he said only, in a patient tone, "Well, I couldn't land in Germany."

After seeing the amazing research in this thread, I couldn't help wondering if anyone has more information about my father-in-law, 2LT Don L Boatright.

A side note- Mr Miller erroneously listed his name as Donald L, but it was actually Don L. For those who knew him but lost track, he made it home and in the early 50's owned a photographic studio in Eldorado, IL. He worked for roughly 35 years with Babcock and Wilcox, Bucyrus Erie, and Peter Healey Brass. He retired in the mid 80's.

The day before he passed, my wife dreamed she saw him in an open cockpit aircraft impatient for the weather to clear so he could take off.